As the road to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games continues to heat up, hundreds of swimmers are slated to start the year at the TYR Pro Swim Series at Knoxville. Competition will take place from January 16-19 at the Allan Jones Aquatic Center and is expected to feature over 500 swimmers from over 40 countries.

The Knoxville psych sheet includes over 40 Olympians who combine for 36 total Olympic medals. While many decorated swimmers are set to compete at the Allan Jones Aquatic Center, plenty of athletes will hope to make the cut to join the 1,139 swimmers who have already qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming, which will take place from June 21-28 in Omaha, Nebraska.

One of the most decorated swimmers slated to compete in Knoxville is Simone Manuel (Sugar Land, Texas/Alto Swim Club), who is coming off of a seven-medal performance at the 2019 FINA World Championships and most recently had three podium finishes at the 2019 Toyota U.S. Open. Fellow U.S. National Team members and Olympic medalists, such as Allison Schmitt (Canton, Mich./Pitchfork Aquatics) and Nathan Adrian (Bremerton, Wash./California Aquatics), are also expected to swim in Knoxville.

Additionally, the Tennessee crowd will have plenty of local talent to cheer for, as The University of Tennessee and its professional training group at Tennessee Aquatics, combine to have 64 swimmers expected to compete in their home pool. Erika Brown (Charlotte, N.C./University of Tennessee) leads the charge of local talent, as she’ll attempt to carry momentum after her 53.42 performance in the 100m freestyle at last month’s Toyota U.S. Open, which was good for a top-10 time in American history in the event.

Knoxville marks the second stop on the 2020 TYR Pro Swim Series calendar, which debuted in Greensboro last November and will make future stops in Des Moines, Mission Viejo and Indianapolis. The TYR Pro Swim Series previously came to Knoxville in January 2019, when current U.S. National Team members combined to win 30 of 36 individual events.

Competition kicks off Thursday, January 16 at 4 p.m. ET with the men’s and women’s 800m freestyle timed finals. Following the night’s distance freestyle event, competition will follow the same daily schedule with prelims beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET and finals starting at 6:30 p.m. ET. 

Across the 2019-2020 TYR Pro Swim Series, swimmers may earn increased awards for top‐three finishes. At each meet, $1,500 will be provided for a first‐place finish, $1,000 for second and $500 for third. In addition, one athlete per gender with the highest‐scoring prelim swim in an individual Olympic event based on FINA power points will win $1,500.